Rebirth
by Mr. Iowa
Summary: It's been 23 years since Carter Hall plummeted from the top of LuthorCorp Tower to save Lois Lane, losing his life in the process. But as the Prince Khufu exhibit begins is nationwide tour in Star City, a strange force draws two people together toward their destiny.
1. Dreams

The dreams woke me up, for the third time this week, far more than the once or twice a month frequency I'd dealt with before. I've been having these dreams for years, and never the same one twice. Some are set in the Middle Ages, others in places like Egypt, maybe even Greece. The World History major in me has tried to decipher the images, but they always fade too fast. Lately, an increasing number of the dreams are just of me sitting around a giant table with some people in truly bizarre costumes. But for all of their differences the dreams all have one thing in common; they feel breathtakingly real. So real, in fact, it's like I'd lived each and every moment of them. The maddening part is that the more I tried to remember the details, the names, places, and dates, the more the dreams slip away from me. In the end all I'm ever left with is the feeling that my life just wasn't quite right. Not to mention that half the time I woke up from the dreams my adrenaline was spiking or my bed was soaked with sweat, often times both.

Swinging my legs out of bed, the cold morning air rather rudely reminded of my own stupidity in not closing my bedroom window last night. Late October nights, with overnight temperatures dipping closer to freezing each passing day, are not exactly the time of year to do such a thing. And it also didn't escape the notice of my father, as the pounding on my bedroom door, and his voice, made painfully clear.

"You know Michael, I don't mind you crashing here from college on the weekends, but unless you're gonna start paying my heating bill, you had better get that window shut! It's freezing up here!"

"Sorry dad!" I replied as looked down my bed at the open window, the red curtains blowing softly into the room from the morning breeze. As I wiped my eyes trying to wake myself up, I trudged along the floor, nearly tripping over the jeans I'd worn yesterday, and made my way over to the window. I pulled the window down, though maybe a bit more forcefully than I intended, and the old wood frame thudded against sill. My dad definitely heard that through the door.

"When you're done trying to break my windows, and have pants on, I made some bacon for you, left it on the stove. I'm heading to work."

"Thanks, talk to you later!" I heard my dad's steps fade away down the stairs as I rummaged around for a clean pair of pants. While having a free weekend sounded awesome, I didn't plan on spending the day in my underwear all day.

Once I made it down the short flight of stairs to the dining room I smelled the bacon my dad had mentioned. While he liked it floppy, I was more of a crispy bacon guy, and my old man didn't disappoint, leaving me a small pile on a plate in the middle of the table. As I reached over the table to bring the best breakfast ever closer to my mouth I noticed the book beside the plate. It quickly dawned on me that this was the history book I'd been looking for since the start of senior year; _Stolen Legacy: The Egyptian Origins of Western Philosophy_. Not exactly a light read, but one that I had hoped would lead to some insights for my World History Capstone research project at Star City University. Too bad I managed to misplace it after having it shipped home instead of my mailing address at school like a dumb freshman. As it stood I guessed I was about a third of the way through my research. My father had given me hell about being so far behind, but with my lifelong interest in the subject, and the place I was going today, I knew I wouldn't have a problem finding the paper I wanted to write. I already had a good lead as well, the murder of a Middle Kingdom ruler and his wife nearly 4,000 years ago by Hath-Set, one history's more well known priests from that time. As it happened, the tomb of the man Hath-Set murdered had been uncovered 23 years ago and, after a careful period of cataloguing and preservation, was beginning its nationwide tour today at the Star City Museum. Needless to say I was rather eager to check it out. And maybe my excitement was a little amplified as the exhibit was hitting the road with the Justice League's travel exhibit as well, but whatever this feeling of energy was, it was a bit more than just me scratching my history itch.

As I read through the foreword of my re-discovered book I polished off the last of the bacon, checking my watch to see I wasn't going to miss the opening of the exhibit. With breakfast gone I headed back upstairs, showered and quickly got dressed in a plain red shirt and jeans before grabbing my old brown leather jacket and headed for the door. A 20 minute Uber ride later and I walked through the doors of the museum. The main entry was decked out in an Egyptian theme, somewhere between tacky and charming. Then again, my appreciation for Egyptian art styles was probably a bit more fact based than most people's. At least the museum had enough to space to show both the Egyptian and Justice League Exhibits in their entirety, unlike a few of the smaller stops along the tour. The historian in me wanted to take a left and start pouring over the unearthed pieces of history, but the other part of my had me taking a straight line, well, maybe more of a meandering line through the crowd milling around the floor, in the direction of the Justice League's main attraction, Superman.

For quite literally my whole life Earth has been kept safe by our alien hero. To this day I still listen with rapt attention as my dad tells me how he was actually in Metropolis when Superman showed himself to the world by _literally_ moving a planet back into space! There was a strong rumor that the big man himself was going to do a fly by, to kick off the tour in style, but I kind of doubted it. I clearly wasn't the only one interested in the Kryptonian part of the exhibit though, as I quickly found myself pressed in by the crowd, all looking to get a closer look at the man they all looked up to. I slowly shifted right along the glass, finding the crowd drastically thinned out the farther I got from Superman's section. I came to a stop in front of another glass case, much like Superman's, though a bit smaller in comparison. This one was just as recognizable to me though, full of a collection of bows, trick arrows, and the familiar green leather of the first Green Arrow. As I read the plaque detailing the heroics of Star City's current mayor I heard someone talking. It took me a moment to realize he was talking to me.

"You know, I thought this being in my hometown I'd at least get a case as big as the boy scout's. Heck, I'd settle for one as big as Batman's. You know what I mean kid?"

There's something about hearing a voice in person that you've only ever heard through TV or on YouTube. It takes a second to work through how you know the voice, but it hit me like a freight train when I figured it out. Oliver Queen was standing right behind me.

I turned around slowly, still kind of in shock. I mean, I'd grown up listening the stories of Green Arrow and Superman, the world's first superhero duo, founders of the Justice League. When I was in high school his retirement was a big deal, and only got bigger when he announced he was running for mayor, an election he'd won is two straight landslides since. I think it's safe to say I wasn't alone in Star City thinking that Oliver Queen was their hero, Superman be damned. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but when I made the turn I didn't think I'd see Mr. Queen's face resort to shock when he saw my own.

I quickly panicked, thinking I'd already screwed up my first face-to-face time with one of my idols. "Do-do I have something on my face sir?"

Mr. Queen quickly resumed the professional, but surprisingly laid back demeanor I was used to seeing on TV, running a hand through his short silver hair. "No, not at all kid. You just look a lot like someone I used to know."

"I'm Michael Jameson, sir." I extended my hand. "It's an honor to meet you."

Recognition seemed to click with Mr. Queen as he shook my hand. "You wouldn't happen to be the Jameson kid that Professor Rosenberg has in one of classes, would you?"

I was a little dumbstruck that the freakin' Green Arrow knew my name. "Yes sir, at least I think so. It's a big school."

Oliver snapped his fingers, clearly trying to remember something. "Got it. You're studying ancient Egypt, right? When I approached the professor to help me and the exhibit's curator plan this whole thing he was particularly excited about your proposal for senior project, if I'm remembering right."

I wasn't sure how to respond, mostly I just stood there alternating my eyes from Mr. Queen the suddenly fascinating off-white marble floor of the museum. Thankfully the awkward silence only lasted a moment before the mayor continued.

"So, what's the focus of your paper?"

This time I had something to say. "I'm studying the relationships between ancient Egyptian rulers and the priests in their region. One section in particular is actually going to be about the prince in the other exhibit opening today, he was apparently murdered by the High Priest of his era, Hath-Set."

"You're joking." The deadpan look in the mayor's eyes kind of threw me off.

"Dead serious, sir."

"Huh." He said as I watched him fiddle with the chin of his goatee. "As it so happens, I have a collection of the prince's personal artifacts that we didn't put on display, a bit too delicate for the public eye. But given the rather crazy coincidence of your research I think I could talk the exhibit's curator into letting you take a peak, assuming you can translate the hieroglyphs from that era."

I broke into a smile at that. "I found I've got a pretty good eye for hieroglyphs. I actually spent a summer with Professor Rosenberg in Khandaq examining artifacts supposedly belonging to Teth-Adam."

Oliver turned and motioned for me to walk beside him. "Khandaq is a pretty rough area, I'm surprised the college let him go, let alone with a student."

"It, uh, wasn't exactly a 'sanctioned' school trip."

Oliver shook his head. "Of course it wasn't."

"And since they didn't know we were there we didn't have to report how several of the weapons we were examining literally vanished from our hands while we were studying them." Queen didn't break stride as I dropped the bombshell. "Dead serious, by the way."

"Oh I don't doubt it. That name, Teth-Adam, I've...got some experience with him, so does the rest of the Justice League."

I didn't know what to say to that so we walked silently back toward the main entrance, heading for the side door of the hall, but a woman, in her late 40's or early 50's by my guess, stopped us, seemingly on a warpath to talk to the mayor.

"Oliver, I appreciate you flying me out here when you know how easily I could have gotten a lift, but that doesn't mean you get to stall me out of the interview Perry sent me out here to do!"

Oliver almost looked nervous as the woman bore down on him, straightening his blue tie. "Easy Lois, I was just busy is all. Being mayor keeps a retired superhero pretty pressed for time." I saw his tilt rather subtly in my direction. "Besides, something came up a few minutes ago so I kind of had to clear my schedule on the fly."

This Lois woman didn't look too happy, but she looked over at me. Just like Oliver earlier, a look a surprise and shock quickly ran over her face. Her head snapped back to Oliver, and the mayor nodded in answer to her unspoken question.

I was just happy that she wasn't directing any anger my way when she glared at Oliver. "Fine, go do your thing. But keep us in the loop, OK?"

I wanted to laugh at Oliver's mock bow, but thought better of drawing the anger of this Lois lady. "Yes ma'am."

We both stood and watched her leave. The whole situation was weird. First meeting my childhood hero, and then this woman. I couldn't shake this feeling in my gut that I knew her, but I brushed it off as someone who'd probably been in a special about Oliver I watched over and over as a kid, it seemed like the two had history, something the mayor confirmed as he watched the doors swing shut behind Lois.

"Man, how Clark has handled her for two decades is beyond me." It seemed his reminiscing was done because he quickly closed the gap between the side access door and unlocked it with the palm scanner on the door. He pulled back to the door for me. "I figured I'm going to fund the exhibits I should probably upgrade the security a bit. Let's go check out those writings, shall we?"

As the door shut behind Oliver we both were stopped by a young woman, another woman who seemed angry at the mayor. I got the sense this wasn't very uncommon for him. Unlike Lois, though, this woman was much closer to my age, maybe even exactly my age.

"Ms. Jones, I thought were heading back to Hudson University."

The girl gave me the once over, quickly spoiling her admittedly stunning face with a look of disgust at what she saw. "Mr. Queen, you know how long I worked on cataloguing these artifacts. Sure, if Professor Anderson's wife wasn't sick he would be the one to oversee the collection, but he left me here to oversee the proper care and shipping once the exhibit leaves town."

"His wife's sick? I didn't actually know that." He gestured to me. "This is Michael Jameson, he's actually studying at Star City U with Rosenberg and researching the prince and his murder, among other things. I thought he could maybe take a peek at some of the tablets you've catalogued. Supervised, of course."

The girl didn't even uncross her arms as she rapidly replied. "No."

Her answer shocked me, to say the least. "And why not?" I'll admit, it came off more defensive than I'd like, but I was on a roll. "Is little Miss Hudson not wanting a lowly Star City U kid to take a look at _her_ collection?"

Her expression changed from one of annoyance to amusement in a flash. "So you don't remember me?"

I was a bit taken back by the question. "I think I'd remember if I'd met you before. Self-obsessed people kind of stick out in my memory."

Our conversation didn't get a whole lot further because as Ms. Jones started to laugh all the light went out of the room. It got cold at the same time. I was suddenly grateful I hadn't shed my jacket yet. Thankfully Oliver pulled out his phone and activated the flashlight. He started back to the door, but when he got there it refused to budge. For a few seconds the three of us stood there, sharing the same bad feeling, articulated best by the former superhero.

"We're in a warehouse of artifacts belong to a murdered Egyptian prince, once rumored to have been cursed. This isn't going to go well." He arched his phone above his head, plotting a course through the warehouse. "Follow me. There should be an exit on the far side. Experience says it's pointless, but we won't know until we get there."

Being the guy with the light, Oliver took the lead, which left me walking next to the woman who not two minutes ago I was pretty rude to. Surprisingly, she apologized to me.

"Sorry about getting all possessive. I've been working on the collection for nearly two years now. It's personal, in more ways than one. And letting someone else look at it for a glorified research project.." She trailed off, but I knew what she meant.

"Hey, I've been studying Egyptian history since I was 5, even gone on a few digs in Egypt and Khandaq. I know what I'm doing, so I do get not wanting someone to play in your sandbox. We both could have been a bit nicer about it I guess." I couldn't see it, but I could feel she agreed with me. We walked in silence for a bit, walking passed a sign that I only barely read as _Artifacts of Hath-Set_.

"My name's Sara, by the way."

"Nice to meet you Sara. So, about that whole looking at the writings thing?" I let the question hang, hoping she laugh it off and say yes, but when I looked over I saw one of the stone statue's eyes glowing. In the dim light Sara must have caught my stare, and she turned to look.

"Oh shit!"

Oliver turned back, almost blinding us with the light. "What? Is it mummies? Tell me it's not mummies."

Oliver trained the light on the statue we pointed at, and within seconds a black smoke billowed out of the statues while the yellow eyes only glowed brighter. Sara was slowly backing away from the statue, like she knew what was happening. The fear on her face made that pretty clear to me. After a few seconds the smoke sort of, I don't know, balled up, and rushed at Oliver, striking him in the chest and sending him flying away from Sara and I before it uncoiled and spilled out across the floor again. The cloud kept growing, thick and black, and it quickly smothered the light from Oliver's phone, lying where Oliver dropped it when he thrown backward. I felt Sara's hand grab mine and I squeezed it tight, both to keep her, and myself calm. The creepy, high pitched voice coming from the statue didn't help.

" _Both you...here! But only one remembers what you are...and what_ I _am."_ The smoke enveloped me. It was like all the light and sound were gone from the world, and suddenly I couldn't feel Sara's hand. " _This is going to be too much fun."_

And in the blink of an eye the smoke, and Sara, was gone. The lights quickly blinked on, like nothing had happened. I ran over to Oliver as he was getting to his feet. "What the hell was that?"

He rubbed his chest. "I was kind of hoping you'd be able to tell me that actually."

* * *

 **A/N: Not 100% sure I'll be continuing this piece. I recently re-watched seasons 9 and 10 of Smallville now that it's on Hulu and I've had this intro stuck in my head ever since, mostly I think because of how awesome Michael Shanks was as Hawkman. So if you like this beginning, let me know, I'll keep tinkering away at an actual outline in the meantime.**


	2. Familiar Faces

With the smoke gone and the lights back on the temperature in the artifact wing thankfully returned to normal. I'd never felt anything like it, but having watched the Justice League fight off supernatural threats for years made it seem a little less otherworldly. Still, it's a lot different having something like that happen to you, instead of just watching it on the news.

After I helped Oliver to his feet I had him sit down, mostly so he could catch his breath. Getting caught square in the chest certainly will take it a guy I supposed. So while he was in the middle of a coughing fit I started looking around the small warehouse, hoping to find some clue as to what the hell that smoke creature was, and where it had taken Sara. In the dark I must have missed the the metal bay doors, no doubt housing specific collections or groups of artifacts, not an uncommon practice when cataloguing such a large collection. I opened the first door closest to the now inert statue that had spewed out the smoke in the first place. There wasn't much in the way of a label, unlike the other bays, something I no doubt would mention Ms. Jones, but I certainly wasn't expecting to find a chest plate attached to a set of wings at the back of the storage unit.

It was like I was drawn to the wings, and the almost bronze like chest piece. They seemed familiar, like I'd seen them before. Part of me was wondering if they weren't somehow connected to my dreams, but then I remembered the old news clippings from the Green Arrow's early days, the ones about Hawkman. That must be how I remembered them. But I was shocked when I took the last step toward the plate and put my hand on the red hawk logo in the center that it lit up, shining pretty brightly in the unlight space. I heard Oliver walking into the unit as well, but he didn't seem so surprised. When I looked back I saw the look of a man on a mission. He handed me a small chip and tapped his ear.

"Watchtower, two for emergency zeta transport. And send the big guy down for some hardware pickup from the storage wing of the Star City Museum. He'll know what I'm talking about when he see's it."

Within seconds a bright light wrapped around us, and I felt this weird feeling in the pit of my stomach, but in a flash it was gone, and was the ground we had been standing on apparently. A small wave of vertigo passed over me as I tried to get my balance, and Oliver noticed.

"Don't worry, it happens to everyone the first time they get zeta-beamed anywhere. Heck, Mr. Terrific still almost hurls every time and he's been doing this almost a decade."

"Hey, I heard that!" A guy in a black leather jacket and a T-shaped mask stood up from the behind a computer station on the level above, looking down at us on what looked like a giant transport pad straight out of Star Trek.

A hologram of a red-headed woman popped up to our left, a strikingly realistic hologram. "Hello Oliver, nice to see you back on Watchtower. Remember those DNA scanners you made sure we installed after our little run in with our Earth-3 counterparts?"

"Yes Tess, and I also remember paying for them as well."

"So if I said they were picking up a match on your guest, you would say…?"

"I'd say that I know, and that's why he's here."

I was never really a fan of people talking about me like I wasn't there, so I cut in. "Hi, the guest has a name, you know."

The hologram's glare made me rethink my approach. "Yes. He does. He also shouldn't be on Watchtower without prior approval, regardless of Oliver's inability to follow the rules."

Oliver didn't seem to like that. "Hey, I helped write those rules. And I brought him up here for a damn good reason. Has Superman picked up the stuff yet?"

While the two continued to bicker I felt myself drifting off, their voices falling off into the background. I walked to the side of the pad, rested my head against the wall as a headache suddenly started assaulting the back of my brain. Suddenly I was in an old clock tower, a large stain glass window blocking the sunlight from the sunrise. Computer monitors were everywhere, and some kind of laser device was sitting on a table opposite me. The holographic redhead was there, but she was a real flesh and blood human, and she was screaming at a much younger Oliver, who was looking at me like he was asking for help. But then someone grabbed my shoulder, pulling me out of whatever it was and I realized I'd been hallucinating. Shaking my head I looked back at Oliver.

"Hey, you still with us man? You look like you're about to pass out."

I waved him off. "I'm good, just a really strong headache."

The redhead walked around me, almost like she was scanning me. "I think you should head down to the medical bay with Oliver, Mr. Jameson. I'll have Superman meet you there for a debrief about this 'darkness' as Oliver puts it."

Oliver nodded. "Not a bad idea, but hang on a sec, got a few pressing things to run by you, Tess."

As Tess and Oliver talked off the side I walked to their right, in the direction of the massive window, hoping to get away from all the people coming and going from Watchtower through the same pad I'd arrived one. When I finally crossed the 40 or so feet to the window the sight took my breath away. I'd seen images and videos from astronauts from space, but there's just something about looking down at Earth from orbit that's mesmerizing, though even that word leaves a lot to be desired. It was strangely quiet in this little offshoot of Watchtower; I would guess it was probably designed with that in mind, so I was able to focus on the memory flash I'd just had. Now that I was experiencing them while awake, and that those visions contained the very people I was now with made it very clear to me that they were real. I'd pretty much always felt that way, but now that belief was absolute. Being so deep in thought I completely missed that I was no longer alone.

"I always liked this spot. Gives me a reminder of what I'm fighting for, what we're all fighting for." I looked over to my left at the source of the voice and saw my viewing partner was none other than Superman himself. "I mean, I'd rather have our base somewhere on Earth, but I just couldn't get Batman, the first one, to agree to it."

I nodded. "I hear he was a stubborn one."

Superman chuckled at that. "Oh you have no idea. At least the new one's not _quite_ so bad."

I let the conversation kind of die down for a bit, so the two of us just stared out into space in silence for a few minutes. I put my hand on the glass; just reassure myself it was real. Once my fingers touched the surface I was surprised to feel it wasn't actually glass.

Superman must have seen the look of surprise, or maybe he was just used to explaining it to newcomers. "It's actually a transparent aluminum alloy. Took some doing, but it's a lot of more structurally sound than any other tempered glass option Queen Industries had at the time."

As he was explaining the window I felt lightheaded, like before. And just like before, I suddenly wasn't on Watchtower, I was back in that weird clock tower place with the huge stain glass window. This time, though, there was only one person with me, and the two of us were just leaning on a railing, looking down at the computer stations below. In the memory, I didn't turn, but I could feel like I know the other man, knew him well in fact. So when my head turned, I was pretty surprised to see that 'memory me' was standing next to Superman, someone who I had only just met for the first time. Even in a memory, without the familiar 'S' on his chest, it's awfully hard to misplace a 6' 4" Kryptonian. Standing there, I felt at peace, unlike the first memory in which I felt panicked, like something was amiss.

But just as I started speaking to this younger Superman, the memory went fuzzy, and whatever 'memory me' had been saying was lost, muffled in the background as the vision faded in a flash of light. Suddenly, I was back on Watchtower with Superman grabbing me by the shoulders, and my head throbbing so hard I thought it was going to pop off my neck. I ran my hands along the side of my head, squeezing my eyes tight to try to cope with the pain. I didn't have to have them open to hear the worry in Superman's voice.

"We're going to the med bay." I very quickly realized that Superman had super sped me to the med bay; I had barely even felt the tug of motion as he covered the distance to the medical facility. My head was getting worse, but I could make out Superman speaking to the doctor.

"We need to see what's going with his brain Emil."

I opened my eyes a bit; I noticed I was already lying on a hospital bed. Just before the pain seared back up again I saw an elderly doctor with glasses looking over a chart on some kind of holographic pad.

"I know. I just wish Carter had managed to actually tell us how this works. Reincarnation isn't exactly something I'm familiar with."

I thought my headache was bad, but as soon as the doctor mentioned the name Carter, it went to a whole new level. I screamed in pain, no doubt freaking the hell out of Superman and the doctor. But the pain just stopped after that, though instead of waking up in the Justice League hospital bed, I saw only blackness. It was a weird feeling, like my consciousness was separate from my body, but that feeling of weightlessness only lasted a moment as light, color, and sound all assaulted me at once. Streams of visions, like the ones from earlier, rushed by me, but by focusing I've found that I could slow them down somewhat. Some scenes were just the dreams I'd had before, but others were new. I saw a young blonde girl, no more than 13, looking guilty as she handed me a golden staff. I could feel myself annoyed as she looked up at me. There was a man, shaking on the ground, with a golden helmet in his hands. Like a punch to the gut the scene changed to woman lying in my arms, her bronze winged helmet cracked along the eye socket, her eyes unmoving as she lay motionless. The sorrow quickly morphed into rage as I was suddenly watching my arm swing a mace down onto a man's head, the spike sticking violently into his skull. As most as quickly as they assaulted me, the visions slowed, until I could tell that I was watching the final one. I felt pain, shooting through my abdomen like a red hot poker, and wind in my face as I was falling through the night sky. I could feel heat, like an open fire all around me and a woman just out of reach of my outstretched hands. I caught up to her, shielded her as I turned over on my back, slamming into the pavement. The edges of the vision were cloudy, like I was dying. The younger Superman suddenly sped into my field of vision. The memory faded to darkness after that. It's hard to describe, but it was like I suddenly remembered who I was, and who I'd been in my past lives. In the darkness I heard Superman and the doctor briefing Tess on my situation.

"So he's in a coma? That's your profound medical diagnosis?"

I heard the doctor sigh. "I don't know Tess. This is all way beyond my area of expertise. As loathe as I am to admit it, we should have called Constantine or Zatanna for this. Carter's reincarnation doesn't exactly fall under the purview of accepted science, even for me."

The two let the conversation lapse; I guess they were looking to Superman for his input. "I'm sure Michael, or Carter, or whoever, will be fine. I doubt we did anything to screw up a 4,000 cycle just by bringing him here. I'm more worried about the girl this shadow thing took. The creature doesn't match any known entity we've encountered before."

I figured now would be a good time to let them know I was awake. I opened my eyes, letting them adjust to the observation lights above. "That's because my wife and I trapped him in a statue two hundred years ago." I looked down, and the shock on their faces pretty much said it all. I rolled out of the left side of the bed, my head still ringing slightly. Superman reached out to steady me, but I waved him off. "I'm fine, _Clark_. Nice suit, by the way. And yes, I remember _everything._ "

While the doctor and Tess still looked shocked behind him, Clark didn't miss a beat. "So you know what that thing was?"

I nodded. "He calls himself 'The Shadow Man'". About 1,000 years ago he was a tribal leader in Africa that stumbled upon a Thanagarian artifact, likely from the same crash my wife and I salvaged our wings and weapons from. It gave him the ability to alter his physical form and literally become a shadow."

"And the girl?"

"Well there's the rub, Clark. That asshole took my wife." I brushed past Superman. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go get my mace and then go kick his ass." I studied the door, quickly realizing the problem with my plan. "Though if someone could show me how this door works and help me get my gear that would be great."

* * *

 **A/N: Please review!**


	3. Memories

As soon as Clark came over to the door waved his hand to the side, prompting the senor to open the door to the hallway. I was just about to ask Clark which way to turn when I felt the slight rush as air as I found myself standing in what looked like Oliver Queen's wet dream of an armory. Once the momentary unease of having traveled at super speed subsided I looked around the room. Uniforms, weapon racks, some kind of futuristic 3D printer, and several motorcycles were all lined up around another one of those teleporter pads from the main hall. Just on the opposite of that pad I saw it, my armor. No doubt Clark or maybe Oliver had run back to fetch it from the Star City museum. With that in mind I made a mental note to have a long talk with Oliver about putting my personal stuff on display for the whole damn world to see. As I took a step forward I noticed Superman was standing behind me, staring far too wide-eyed at me for my taste.

"Yes, I do remember everything Clark. And yes, I will get caught up on the 20 some years I missed, but that's gonna have to wait." I quickly crossed the pad and picked up my mace as Clark awkwardly tried moving the conversation forward.

"It's just weird, seeing you, but not actually you, but then actually you, once you remember everything."

I shrugged, holding my mace, testing the weigh in my hands. "I remember the first time, trying to convince everyone after 20 years that their prince had come back from the dead. Now _that_ was weird. But after a while, I got used to it. You probably will too." As I unfastened the chest plate from its mount I could practically hear Clark wringing the back of neck as he tried to figure what to say. "After all, you're probably going to be around for the next few at the very least, assuming you don't have to fight Doomsday again." I turned my head to see the look of surprise on his face. "I do happen to remember all the events of Michael's life as well. You're little Jesus moment kind of stands out in his memories a bit."

The quizzical look on my friend's face returned. "Does it usually happen so fast? You getting your memories back, I mean."

I lifted up the chest piece off the mount, putting my arm through the hinged side, closing the other side around my shoulder. As the open side closed the symbol on the chest glowed red again and I could feel the power of the Nth metal as the wings unfurled behind me. I let the feeling wash over me for a moment before answering Clark.

"No, not this fast. But I also usually remember things well before my wife, so that's two major differences for this cycle. Looking back on Michael's first contact with her, she pretty clearly knew all about who I was, and who she was to me. She always likes to lord it over me for a while when things go that way. I supposed being around so many people who knew me in my previous life kind of jumpstarted things. Plus, she wouldn't have no idea that Oliver knew who I was, seeing as she had died long before I met any of you."

"And speaking of Michael…" Clark's voice drifted off, and I knew where he was going.

"You can still call me Carter." I took a swing of the mace, re-familiarizing myself to its weight. "I liked being Carter, minus the decade or two of alcoholism and depression."

Clark laughed, finally breaking some of the tension he was carrying. "Yeah, I don't think anyone wants to relive those days. You were kind of.."

"An ass?" I dropped the mace into its hip holster as I cut it. "I suppose I was. Now, what do you say we go find Oliver so I can piss him by telling how old he got while I was gone?"

"I think that will have to wait, as fun as it would be to watch." The hologram of Tess popped up on my left.

"You look…different." I looked Tess up and down before looking over at Clark. "I take it I missed the part where you turned Tess into a computer?"

"Technically I'm a fully sentient AI based on the neural make up of Tess. But that's just science talk for 'Lex killed me, I got trapped in his head thanks to the neuro-toxin I used to wipe his memory, then Emil built a computer that could handle a human brain after Clark and Lois figured out I wasn't really all that dead, and then I basically became a less murderous Skynet.'"

"Well damn, I really did miss a lot."

Tess nodded in agreement. "More than you know Carter, more than you know. But my path to returning to the world of living didn't involve me coming back as a 22 year old version of me. Am I correct in assuming the woman the shadow man stole was your reincarnated wife?" I caught Clark's sideways glance at Tess, who barely missed a beat. "What? We digitized Carter's journals years ago. The way they met, both drawn to artifacts of their past lives, as well as to each other, it makes sense that Sarah's the new life Shayera was born into."

"Well you may be a computer, Red, but you're still just as on your game as ever. Yes, on all points. But just like the last time, The Shadow Man's going to lose."

"You're sure of that?" The concern in Clark's voice hadn't changed a bit in the time I'd been gone.

"Well this time I'm going to be fighting alongside this super-powered friend of me. Perhaps you've heard of him. Like to fly, shoot lasers from his eyes. Has a thing for red and blue."

Tess chuckled at that last bit, but quickly composed herself. "So, any place in particular we should start looking?"

I thought threw the last few encounter with the Shadow Man before turning to Tess. "Pull up a map?" A few taps on her holographic pad and just as the overhead lights dimmed down, a blue partially transparent map of the world popped up between Clark and I. "Focus on the east coast of the US, Boston in particular." The map suddenly zoomed in, way in, until a layout of Boston had taken the globe's place. I racked my brain, trying to remember the name of the warehouse, who owned it the last time we fought. I looked up to find Clark and Tess staring at me intently. "I don't have an exact location; the last time we fought was over 50 years ago. But each time Shayera and I defeated him it was in the exact same spot, a dockside warehouse in Boston."

Clark took over from there. "Are there any warehouses reporting electrical issues or loss of power? When this Shadow guy popped up in the museum the electrical grid went completely haywire."

Again Tess tapped away at the holographic pad, no doubt diving through more information than I could hope to in a lifetime. I wondered why she was even bothering with the projection of a pad; it had to be purely cosmetic. But she soon had an answer. "There's one place, dock 19." The number jumped out at me and I shot a look at Tess as she continued. "It was bought back in 1973 by Grant Holdings after some kind of electrical problem drove the previous owner out of business. Apparently Mr. Grant had meant to turn it into a training facility for up and coming boxers, but that never got off the ground. All the other warehouses on the dock haven't had an electrical spike in days, but Dock 19 had a huge power spike about 12 hours ago and then went totally dark. No power readings at all."

Suddenly that memory hit me. "I remember now. Ted helped me buy the place after the JSA helped capture the Shadow Man and imprison him in the statue. It was never going to be turned to a training site, at least not one for the public. We'd barely gotten that JSA training ground running before Checkmate came calling."

Tess called up a few photos and blueprints of the building. "Looks like there's an old-school security system on the perimeter, probably what trigged the power surge in the first place."

I brushed my hand over the leather strap on top of my mace. "Then I think we've found our target. So how do you guys get to places now? Teleporters?"

Tess tapped emphatically on her pad, and the photos and blueprints disappeared. "They're actually zeta beams, but close enough. We borrowed the technology from a friend on-"

"Rann." I cut in, knowing exactly the planet she was talking about. I noticed the look of surprise on her face. "Hey, I may be literally older than the pyramids, but your contact with Rann isn't the first time our two peoples have crossed paths. But that's a long story, and we have a fight to get to."

Tess kicked the main lights back up and led the way back to the door Clark and I had come in through. "And speaking of stories, Carter, I think that old JSA site might be a perfect fit for our black box project, assuming you can talk Mr. Grant into transferring the rights to the property."

I stopped abruptly. "He's alive?

Tess nodded. "Oh yes, modern science has helped the former heavyweight champion lived well into his nineties. Assuming you handle things in Boston I'll have a meeting set up."

It had never occurred to me that after this long anyone from my JSA days would still be alive. "Thank you Tess, but you're right. Clark and I need to take care of business in Boston first."

"Well I hope you weren't leaving without telling me. My feelings would get hurt." I guess our conversation about Ted distracted me from Oliver walking through the open door. Oliver walked up to me, seemingly scrutinizing my face.

"You get any closer and we've either got to hug, or I hit you with my mace."

Oliver cracked a 1000 watt smile. "Well, that's definitely Carter." Queen extended his hand, and I shook it. "Good to have you back."

"Good to be back Ollie."

"So what's this I hear about you and Clark heading to Boston." Seeing me nod he went on. "I assume you have a plan?"

I looked to my right and noticed Oliver's old workstation from the first Watchtower. "Funny you should mention that. I was actually going to ask what kind of net arrows you have these days."

Oliver sounded a little confused when he responded. "I'm not exactly sure how we're going to capture a shadow guy with a net."

"It'll work, as long as the net's made of an Nth metal allow. The stuff interferes with dimensional shifting, but a mace doesn't have enough surface area to fully cancel out his shadow form. I just hope in the 20 or so years I was gone you lot managed to scrounge up some more of the stuff because I really, _really_ , don't want to melt down my mace."

Oliver looked over to Tess. "Oh, I think I can whip something up. I might even be able to fight it into an arrow to boot."

I sighed at my old friend's subtle attempt to come on the mission. "You're not coming with us Oliver."

"What?" He sounded a little incredulous, but I guess not for the reason I would have thought. "Chloe would kick my ass if I went with you two, and I happen to like my ass exactly the way it is. No, Carter, I was going to send Roy with you."

Now it was my turn to be confused. "Roy?"

Clark cut in before Oliver could answer. "Which one?"

Oliver glared at Clark. "Like I'd bring Arsenal up here. Give me some credit, would you big guy? Of course I'm talking about Red Arrow, yeesh!"

Tess raised her voice above the three of us, making herself a little taller in the process to get our attention. "Boys, while this little back and forth brings back some fond memories, I believe we have a job to do, right?"

Clark nodded. "Yes." He looked over at Oliver. "Get started on that net, we'll go brief Red Arrow on the situation."

As Tess winked out, headed off to god knows where, and Oliver left the room to start fabricating I looked over at Clark. "Red Arrow? Not exactly an imaginative name."

Clark shook his head and cracked a smile. "Oh I know. Just don't let Oliver, or Roy, for that matter, hear you say that." He motioned for me to follow him as he headed for the door. "Come on, I'm sure J'onn and the others will want to say hi before we can get Roy on board."

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 **A/N: Please review!**


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